Monthly Archives: July 2021

Without Ingenuity, visible in silhouette at the bottom of this next image, Perseverances scientists would never get to see this section of Stah so clearly: Its too sandy for Perseverance to visit. The unique view offers enough detail to inspect these rocks and get a better understanding of this area of Jezero Crater.

As the rover works its way around the dune field, it may make what the team calls a toe dip into some scientifically compelling spots with interesting bedrock. While Toupet and his team wouldnt attempt a toe dip here, the recent images from Ingenuity will allow them to plan potential toe-dip paths in other regions along the route of Perseverances first science campaign.

The helicopter is an extremely valuable asset for rover planning because it provides high-resolution imagery of the terrain we want to drive through, said Toupet. We can better assess the size of the dunes and where bedrock is poking out. Thats great information for us; it helps identify which areas may be traversable by the rover and whether certain high-value science targets are reachable.

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A key objective for Perseverances mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planets geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASAs Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages the technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASAs Science, Aeronautics Research, and Space Technology mission directorates. NASAs Ames Research Center in Californias Silicon Valley, and NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuitys development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Martin Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.

JPL manages the MRO mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado.

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Mars . NASA's Mars Helicopter Reveals Intriguing Terrain for Rover Team - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

(Photo : GettlyImages/ Maja Hitij ) SpaceX Elon Musk

SpaceX's Elon Musk talked about his goals for Mars as he engaged with fans on Twitter. Elon Musk is known to launch astronauts to the Moon and develop implants for brain-computer interfaces, and it seems like the SpaceX CEO's imagination has no bounds.

SpaceX's Elon Muskhas made his money firing satellites into the Earth's orbit, but his main goal has always been to go to Mars and have people live there, according toExpress UK.

Musk has always maintained the purpose of his exploits in space is to make sure that humanity becomes a spacefaring civilization.

Musk has invested money and resources into his Starship program to create a fully reusable and interplanetary launch vehicle.

Also Read:Elon Musk Debunks Impression on SpaceX and Mars Mission Origins, Reveals Stand on Caffeine

Mars is the top candidate for an outpost because it is close, easy to reach, and its surface conditions are adequate for human exploration.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO have now shared some insight into his plans for the Red Planet, telling his fans that the city on Mars could be completed by 2050.

On July 10, Musk was asked onTwitterabout SpaceX's plans for aRaptor factoryin South Texas. Raptors are engines used to power Starship, which is SpaceX's prototype rocket.

Musk said that SpaceX would be "breaking ground" with a second Raptor factory in Texas, and it will focus on producing Raptor 2 engines, while the branch in California will focus on orbital engines and experimental designs, according toDallas Morning News.

A fan on Twitter asked Musk about the volume production he is aiming for and the number of Raptors he wants per year.

Musk then went on to say that SpaceX will pump out thousands of engines until 2022, which should be enough to build a fleet of spacecraft for Mars.

This is not the first time Musk has said that he can set up a city on Mars in 30 years. The billionaire has opened up about the project in the past, revealing his estimates for how much the Mars project will cost.

In 2018, Musk told his Twitter followers that building a city on Mars will cost around $100 million to $10 trillion. One of the challenges, he said, is the cost of shifting large quantities of cargo to the planet.

With very few resources, future Mars colonists will have to take building materials with them. Musk added that his plans to make humanity interplanetary would begin this year, according toAustin American Statesman.

Musk believes that putting humans on Mars will help preserve the human species in case a cosmic cataclysm will wipe us out.

Musk tweeted that about half of his money is intended to help Earth issues and help create a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure the continuation of life in case Earth gets hit by a meteor or if World War 3 happens.

However, not everyone is convinced that Musk can pull it off, with one expert calling his goals "delusional."

Lord Martin Rees, one of the leading astrophysicists in the United Kindom, thinks that Musk's dream is dangerous and compared it to living on top of Mount Everest.

Related Article:SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Claims Humans Journey to Mars Possible in Three Years as Starship will Be in Automatic Mode By Next Year!

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Written by Sophie Webster

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SpaceX's Elon Musk Wants to Create a City on Mars by 2050 After Announcement of Raptor Factory in Texas. - Tech Times

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Kadokawa Games is continuing to unveil new details about the mecha strategy JRPG Relayer, which could keep you busy for over 100 hours.

Published on July 13, 2021 Giuseppe Nelva

Home News Mecha Strategy JRPG Relayer for PS5 & PS4 Is Going To Be a Big Game; Post-Story Content Teased

Kadokawa Games is continuing to unveil new details about the upcoming mecha strategy JRPG Relayer.

Today we hear directly from director and producer Yoshimi Yasuda that the game is going to be a rather big experience.

Yasuda-san mentions that the developers are working on a post-campaign challenge mode similar to the Labyrinth of Yomi in their previous game, God Wars.

He also explains that there are four modes of play: the main scenario campaign takes an estimated 40 hours to complete. Developing characters in the battle simulator can take 20 additional hours. Playing the post-story content mentioned above can take another 40 hours, and then you can enjoy the Lap Play (which is the way Japanese gamers describe New Game+ type of gameplay, even if no info was provided on what it will entail specifically).

Relayer will be released simultaneously worldwide for PS4 and PS5 in 2021. A few weeks ago, we published an extensive interview with Yasuda-san himself.

If youd like to learn more, youcan check out the original reveal,additional details,the first trailer, anotherpromotional video, the first reveal ofthe rich cast of characters that will populate the game, andthe second.

If youre unfamiliar with the game, heres an official description.

Story

Humanity is not alone in the universe.

In the year 2049, mankind finally meets intelligent life: the Relayers. Around the same time, the discovery of an ancient alien civilization sets the wheels of fate in motion for the Starchildren, humans bestowed with unique powers.

Then, in the year 2051, our story begins one fateful day when two young women cross paths in Artemis, a colony located on the surface of the Moon. Get ready for an intergalactic adventure where humans and ancient aliens meet, and our stellar neighbors come to life!

Setting

Relayer takes place in the Milky Way galaxy, within our solar system. In the not-too-distant future, humanity has extended its sphere of influence to Jupiter, with the moon and Mars already established as colonies. Humanitys very existence is threatened by mysterious extraterrestrials known as the Relayers, who plan to annihilate the universe. As if in response to the Relayers invasion, the Starchildren, human successors to the wills of the stars, awaken.

A simulation RPG where you lead your troops to victory using strategy & 4 different types of spacecraft!

In Relayer, players participate in turn-based battles, where each different unit plays its own specific role in combat. There are four different types of Stellar Gear, or spacecraft controlled by a Starchild: Assault, Sniper, Tank, and Scout. Each types attack range and weaponry vary, so players will be required to position themselves according to the unique battle situation.

Players can also employ various combat strategies, such as using hate to draw the enemys attention, allowing certain allies to act as decoys, and calling upon allies to push the enemy back.

This is the first new simulation RPG for PS5 from the highly acclaimed GOD WARS development team!

Overcome challenges by customizing your characters occupation!

In Relayer, each character can be assigned to one of the 20 unique job types and 20+ general-purpose jobs in-game. Jobs distinguish your character as an individual, and it can even give you an advantage in battle! There are over 80 jobs to choose from, and each one is unique.

An interstellar adventure with more than 80 stages!

In addition to the main scenario, Relayer contains 80+ stages, including the side story The Asterisms Voyage, which is unlocked as the story progresses. Enjoy the episodes that delve into the characters backgrounds, solve the mystery of the birth of the Moona science fiction fan-favoriteand experience the world of Relayer to the fullest!

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Mecha Strategy JRPG Relayer for PS5 & PS4 Is Going To Be a Big Game; Post-Story Content Teased - Twinfinite

The last century's space race was a competition between the world's great powers and a test of their ideologies. It would prove to be a synecdoche of the entire Cold War between the capitalist United States and the socialist Soviet Union.

The starting pistol in the race to the future was fired in 1961 when President John F Kennedy committed to "achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth" and it ended with a US victory on 24 July 1969 when the crew of the Apollo 11 mission splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

There are no such stakes in today's race. The values of the future aren't in question, merely the egos of three billionaires. One of these men is launching his private spacecraft off the planet on Sunday. Another follows suit soon after.

So here's how they compare and what you need to know:

"My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars," said Sir Richard Branson announcing that he was going to be among the first people his spaceflight company launches on a mission.

Unfortunately, not only will Virgin Galactic's mission fall short of the stars, the two-and-a-half hour mission will also fall short of space, at least according to the internationally agreed definition.

VSS Unity is a spaceplane (perhaps just a plane?) that launches in mid-air from the belly of a carrier aircraft at an altitude of about 15km, and then flies up to an altitude of about 80km, allowing the passengers to feel nearly weightless for approximately six minutes and glimpse the curvature of the Earth.

The problem for Sir Richard is that the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) defines the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space as 100km above Earth's mean sea level, the so-called Karman Line, 20km higher than he is going to travel.

The definition of the edge of space is a bit of a challenge. Earth's atmosphere doesn't suddenly end but becomes progressively thinner at greater altitudes. In very simple terms, physicist Theodore von Karman's solution was to define the edge of space as the highest point at which an aircraft could fly without reaching orbital velocity.

While Karman himself and the FAI regards this altitude as 100km, Sir Richard has the US Air Force and NASA on his side. They both place the boundary of space at 80km above mean sea level, partially because putting it at 100km would complicate issues regarding surveillance aircraft and reconnaissance satellites for the US - although the Department of Defence subscribes to the FAI definition.

It's not clear whether this definition is covered by the small print of Virgin Galactic's customer tickets, but ultimately the company aims to be operating multiple space tourism flights a year, and already has more than 600 customers for the $250,000 (189,000) seats - including Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio.

"Ever since I was five years old, I've dreamed of traveling to space. On 20 July, I will take that journey with my brother," said Jeff Bezos, announcing his seat on a journey to the edge of space.

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket is capable of actually making it there, with a maximum achieved altitude of above 100km, but how high it will bring its four passengers hasn't yet been confirmed.

These passengers will be Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, a mystery customer who paid $28m (20m) for the seat in an auction, and 82-year-old Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk, a woman who had astronaut training in the 1960s but was denied the chance to go into space because of her gender.

While the mission will be scooped to launch by Virgin Galactic, by inviting Wally Funk it has managed to scoop Branson on getting a famous victim of gender injustice into space - she had previously put money down to fly with Virgin Galactic.

It will take three minutes to take the passengers up to the required altitude, at which point they will have three minutes more in which to enjoy their sudden near-weightlessness. They'll be allowed to unbuckle their seatbelts and float around, as well as examine the curvature of the Earth through one of the capsule's windows. Just over 10 minutes after launch, the spacecraft will land back on Earth.

The 20 July flight will fittingly occur on the anniversary of the moon landings in 1969, but unlike the Apollo missions there will be no human piloting the modules. Instead, Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft is completely autonomous and will follow a programmed mission timeline before parachuting back to Earth.

The company has said that it expects to sell seats for more tourism flights in the future, but it isn't clear how this will happen and the tickets for New Shepard are yet to go on general sale.

"I want to die on Mars - just not on impact," Elon Musk once quipped, although he hasn't announced his immediate intention to travel into space at all.

Unlike both Bezos and Branson, Musk's private spaceflight company, SpaceX, has a long and successful history of launching payloads way beyond the 100km mark.

SpaceX has announced it will be launching an all-civilian mission into orbit by the end of the year, with the passengers actually orbiting around the planet for up to four days before returning to Earth.

All four crew seats on the mission have been paid for by Jared Isaacman, the founder of Shift4 Payments, who has declined to reveal the costs.

Isaacman is donating two of the seats to St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, with one being given to a staff member there, and another intended to be raffled off to a member of the public. He hopes to raise $200m (145m) for the hospital, alongside a $100m (72m) donation of his own.

Elon Musk hasn't mentioned flying on this mission himself, although he has long articulated a plan to travel to Mars, plans that have been described as a dangerous delusion by Britain's chief astrophysicist Lord Martin Rees.

Back in 2016, Musk outlined his vision of building a colony on Mars "in our lifetimes" - with the first rocket propelling humans to the Red Planet by 2025.

For many years the company used an image of the Martian surface being terraformed (turned Earth-like) in its promotional material. However, a NASA-sponsored study published in 2018 dismissed these plans as impossible with today's technology.

Recently Musk has tweeted he believed it was "possible to make a self-sustaining city on Mars by 2050, if we start in five years" but as of yet, SpaceX has not planned any missions to the planet.

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Virgin Galactic: The private space race explained as Richard Branson prepares for Sunday's launch - Sky News

Early on the evening of Monday, 12 July, a thin crescent Moon will be seen low on the horizon, just after sunset. Just half a degree below and to the right of our planetary companion, Venus and Mars the two closest planets to Earth, will shine in the twilight.

This is a perfect time for families to venture outside, viewing the wonders of the night sky.

Venus is often called the morning star, or evening star (depending on when the planet rises and sets), due to the fact it is seen near the Sun in the east at dawn, and west at sunset.

The evening of 12 July is a perfect example of Venus as the evening star.

This planet, roughly the size and mass of the Earth, is home to a hellish landscape of scorching temperatures, a poisonous atmosphere, and sulfuric acid rain.In June, NASA announced that two new space missions would be heading to Venus beginning later in the decade. VERITAS and DAVINCI+ will investigate the planets surface and atmosphere, returning incredible images, maps, and other data, likely rewriting our understanding of how Earths sister planet became so inhospitable, along with how it might still be active today. Theyll be joined by the European spacecraft EnVision, for whats sure to be an exciting new chapter in solar system exploration, NASA describes.

Shining bright red near the Moon andVenus, Mars completes the evenings cosmic triangle.

Mars is now a planet of robots, as orbiters, landers, and rovers explore the Red Planet. Robotic explorers built by NASA, the ESA are now joined by intrepid robotic explorers from China and the UAE.

Mars will, almost certainly, be the first world after the Earth on which humans lead out their lives. If we are smart enough, brave enough, and far-sighted enough toovercome the anti-science paradigmperpetuated far too often on social media, Mars provides us our best chance to become a multi-planetary species.

As seen from Mars, the Earth will be an evening star or morning star to future Martian colonists.

How long will it be until people living on Mars will look toEarth, hanging out as a bright light in the Martian sky? Will they see the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos as they appear to huddle together with Earth?

Counting stars by candlelight, all are dim but one is bright;The spiral light of Venus, rising first and shining best,On, from the northwest corner, of a brand new crescent moon,While crickets and cicadas sing, a rare and different tune,Terrapin Station The Grateful Dead,Terrapin Station

Anyone can view this event without any special equipment The Moon,Mars, and Venus are all easily visible using just the naked eye. This event will be seen by most people around the globe, provided the skies above them are clear.

Ideally, skygazers will want to head outside just a little after sunset, to a dark location, with a clear view to the west. This event will be visible for around 30 minutes before Mars and Venus set, so bring chairs, drinks, and snacks if youve got them! If you have a pair of binoculars, bring them along!

The thin two-day oldMoonwill be the first of the objects seen a slender crescent will appear, staking its claim on the darkening sky. Look for the first signs of this young Moon about 20 degrees above the western horizon.

Minutes later, the shining light of Venus will make itself known, just about 3.5 degrees to the right and a little over six degrees below, the Moon.

One handy trick for observing the night sky is to hold an index finger out at arms length. This will cover about half a degree side-to-side, around the size of the Moon or theSunas seen from Earth. a clenched fist held at arms length covers about 10 degrees from thumb to pinkie finger.

Following the arrival of Venus, a red light first dim, then growing progressively brighter as the sky darkens, will be seen just one-sixth of a degree below and half a degree west of the Moon. This is, of course, the planet Mars.

Make sure to see Moon,Mars, and Venus together in the sky on 12 July, low on the western horizon, just after sunset.

This article was originally published onThe Cosmic Companionby James Maynard, the founder and publisher of The Cosmic Companion. He is a New England native turned desert rat in Tucson, where he lives with his lovely wife, Nicole, andMax the Cat. You can read the original article here.

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Watch the Moon, Mars, and Venus form a celestial conga line on July 12 - The Next Web

Think back to the beginning of commercial aviation in the 20th century. The Wright brothers flew their Wright Flyer on 17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, proving that heavier-than-air flight was possible. On 1 January 1914a little over 10 years after Kitty Hawkthe worlds first passenger flight took off from Tampa and landed in St Petersburg, Florida, a trip lasting only 23 minutes. The Wright Flyer was a giant leap, and while that first passenger flight was a small step building on the history made at Kitty Hawk, it ultimately paved the way for todays commercial aviation industry, which has transformed global society and opened up new industries and economies.

Fast-forward to July 2021. Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic has just demonstrated a small step towards opening up the space domain for broader access, with the successful flight of VSS Unity, a sub-orbital rocket plane. Last Sunday it flew to the edge of space, allowing its crew, and paying passengers, to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the earth as if from orbit. Critics have dismissed the flight, and an upcoming launch by competitor Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin of its New Shepard suborbital rocket, as mere stunts, and attacked space billionaires Branson, Bezos and Elon Musk for investing time and money in what they claim are frivolous efforts. The critics dont see the bigger picture.

The start of space tourism is just as important as the early days of commercial aviation were in transforming global affairs. Initially only open to the very rich, and quite dangerous, commercial air travel is now commonplaceindeed, a globalised economy couldnt function without it. Might similar opportunities emerge from commercial space activities in coming decades?

Space tourism needs to be considered as just one element of an effort to expand human access to the space domain and open up the final frontier for large-scale entrepreneurial activities. The era of government-run space programswhats been called old space or Space 1.0, epitomised by NASAs Apollo missionslimited the ability of societies to use space for broad purposes beyond satellites in orbit. What low-cost space access does is allow states and commercial actors to exploit space directly in new and exciting, and much more far-reaching, ways.

But to achieve this goal, the proponents of space tourism such as Branson, Bezos and Musk need to aspire to more than suborbital joyrides for the mega-rich. The industry needs to make a determined effort to provide regular, safe and affordable access to low-earth orbit (LEO) for a wide range of paying customers. If the cost can be brought down to the equivalent of a business-class airfare and paying passengers can fly into orbit with confidence in the safety of the craft, the space tourism market will take off. A failure to achieve this space is for everyone goal will likely see space tourism wither.

The space tourism sector therefore needs to quickly take the next step to develop the technology for accessing LEO cheaply and safely. That will require new types of launch vehicles that take us beyond Bransons air-launched rocket plane and Bezoss suborbital rocket. There will also need to be a blurring of the line between space tourism and the broader elements of commercial space, including a desire to engage more fully with the space-based industry and space-based manufacturing sectors. Space tourism companies need to engage with commercial space companies, such as Axiom Space, that are developing commercial orbital platforms for manufacturing and research, because it will broaden their customer base and strengthen their business model.

The tourism dimension is important, though. Seeing the earth from LEO is a breathtaking experience, and many people would pay to experience hours or even days in orbit, rather than just four minutes of weightlessness. Developing a launch vehicle that can dock with an orbital platform established to support the space tourism market would be a critical next step. Its that positive vision for a future for humanity in space, so well illustrated in Stanley Kubricks 1968 film adaption of Arthur C. Clarkes 2001: A Space Odyssey, that needs to be the goal. Science fiction needs to become fact or this effort wont work.

Of course, governments can benefit from space tourism too, as paying customers. Already, Musks SpaceX is moving quickly to seal contracts to launch satellites for the US military, and theres discussion on the role SpaceXs revolutionary and fully reusable Starship launch vehicle might play in supporting the US Space Force. Imagine the potential applications for the vehicles developed for orbital space tourism, including supporting countries defence and national security needs. Fast, low-cost access to LEO is truly transformative for military space activities and, in the same way that the Sopwith Camel, the Spitfire and the F-35 Lightning II are all descendants of the Wright Flyer, the implications of new types of craft for low-cost space access need to be considered in a future operational context.

This isnt simply about generating a lucrative new economic sector or getting easier access to orbit. At a broader level, space tourism contributes to transforming how humanity thinks about its future in space and increases the prospects for humanity becoming a spacefaring civilization. That future, with humans living and working in space, both for exploration and commercial activity, is a positive vision.

But realising that vision will take time, and space is an incredibly harsh environment. It will also take money. Governments alone cant and wont create that future suggested in 2001, so commercial companies and the space billionaires have to lead. Bezos advocates the establishment of orbital space colonies, while Musk talks about the potential for a colony on Mars. Both are very long-term visions, but the journey has to begin somewhere, and its the space billionaires who are taking small steps now to achieve those giant leaps in the future.

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Space tourism: a small step that can lead to giant leaps | The Strategist - The Strategist